23 days until Stitches Midwest....

There are 23 days until Stitches Midwest!  I'm very tired today...I was up until about 1am prepping 10 pounds of bamboo fiber!  Well, I started this on Sunday, but finished 4 more pounds last night...here it all is, ready to spin!  Each pile will become one skein of yarn - approximately 4 ounces each...there are 40 piles here!

And, some close-up shots (colors prepped:  Summer Shades (3 pounds), Coral Tide (1 pound), New Southwest (2 pounds), DragonWing (2 pounds) and Plum Paradise (2 pounds).  (Please excuse the photos, they were taken with a flash after midnight and bamboo really doesn't photograph well with a flash.)

Some may ask, why do you prep the fiber before spinning it, especially if it takes so much time?  That's a good question, but I prep, or "pre-draft" as it's usually called, ALL of my fiber before spinning.  I feel it helps loosen the fibers and makes them easier to spin and also makes it easier to control the thickness of the finished yarn.  Since the bamboo is best spun thin, this prep work is especially important!

What did Bug do while I worked all night?  She hung out in the Fiber Room, since I had taken over her living room floor!